When SQL*Loader begins execution, it creates a log file. The log file contains a detailed summary of the load.

Most of the log file entries are records of successful SQL*Loader execution. However, errors can also cause log file entries. For example, errors found during parsing of the control file appear in the log file.

This chapter describes the following sections of a SQL*Loader log file:

Column Information

This section contains a more detailed description of the column information that is provided in the Table Information Section of the SQL*Loader log file.

Position

The following are the possibilities for the Position column:

If a position is specified, the position values are in bytes, starting with byte position 1, regardless of whether byte-length semantics or character-length semantics are used.

If both a start and end position are specified, they are separated by a colon.

If only a start position is specified, then only that position is displayed.

If no start or end position is specified, then FIRST is displayed for the first field and NEXT is displayed for other fields.

If the start position is derived from other information, then DERIVED is displayed.

Length

The length, in bytes, is displayed under the heading Len. It gives the maximum size of the field, including the size of any embedded length fields. The size will be different with byte-length semantics versus character-length semantics. For example, for VARCHAR(2,10) with byte-length semantics, the length is 2 (the size of the length field) plus 10 (maximum size of the field itself), which equals 12 bytes. For VARCHAR(2,10) with character-length semantics, the length is calculated using the maximum size, in bytes, of a character in the datafile character set.

For fields that do not have a specified maximum length, an asterisk (*) is written in the Length column.

Delimiter

The delimiters are displayed under the headings, Term (for terminated by) and Encl (for enclosed by). If the delimiter is optional, it is preceded by O and is displayed within parentheses.

Datatype

The datatype is displayed as specified in the control file.

If the SQL*Loader control file contains any directives for loading datetime and interval datatypes, then the log file contains the parameter DATE, DATETIME, or INTERVAL under the Datatype heading. If applicable, the parameter DATE, DATETIME, or INTERVAL is followed by the corresponding mask. For example:

Direct path loads on multiple-CPU systems have the option of using multithreading. If multithreading is enabled (the default behavior), the following additional statistics are logged (the numbers in your log will be different):

Log File Created When EXTERNAL_TABLE=GENERATE_ONLY

When you use the external tables feature, you can place all of the SQL commands needed to do the load, as described in the control file, in the SQL*Loader log file. To do this, set the EXTERNAL_TABLE parameter to GENERATE_ONLY. The actual load can be done later without the use of SQL*Loader by executing these statements in SQL*Plus.